Order For Whom

This weekend I watched the Occupy Wall Street protesters get routed by the NYPD and funneled over the Brooklyn Bridge into human arrest nets.  It reminded me of the college semester I spent in London when a protest I was in was foiled by the same pincer maneuver.

In 1988 the British Thatcher government proposed the Education Reform Act to shift from providing government grants for higher education to forcing working and middle class students to mortgage their degrees with loans (just like their American cousins). 

I was nearly arrested on Westminster Bridge with Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament in sight.  In the beginning the demonstration was routed by the police from Vincent Square, across Vauxhall Bridge, north along the River Thames to a location we never got to.  Halfway through the demo the student organizers decided to route it back across Westminster Bridge with Parliament as the goal.  As thousands of protest marchers approached we faced a line of police on horseback with legions of uniformed Bobbies behind them. 

The mounted cops held the police line while the students rushed it.  We stood for an hour or so with our chests against horses and policemen’s boots.  I was at the front of the march and took up-close photos of cops with their hats askew as the horses bucked and neighed. Then they charged.  As we rushed back a fellow protester reminded me that it was illegal to photograph the police at demonstrations like this.  Amazing how lawful the English are in stressful moments.  With police officers shoving and swinging batons, pushing the crowd back, kids were stepped on, bloodied and knocked to the ground.  The crowd was scattered back right into more police with horses and vans and handcuffs.

It was my first participation in the exercise of fighting power with non-violence.  It was also a reminder that government, and only the government,  has a monopoly on organized violence. They always have.  Hannibal successfully executed the pincer maneuver in 216 BC against the Roman army.  Historically police and military academies have trained officers to use tactical moves against citizens to preserve order (the “order for whom” question never gets asked).  No one should be surprised by the efficiency with which the state employs violence.

I took another look at my photos from the 1988 London demonstration.  Except for the uniforms, the officers looked just like the students.  Reviewing the videos of the Wall Street occupation, I see the same stressed expressions on the faces of the kids and the cops.  It’s the same as it ever was.  The working and middle classes are forced to fight amongst themselves for justice or a paycheck in a society that mutually excludes the two.